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18 October 2011

Over 20 communities in Awgu and Oji-River Local Government Areas of Enugu State have been thrown into serious difficulties, following a major landslide which cut off a portion of the Awgu-Achi-Oji River federal road. The landslide on the road now under rehabilitation, reportedly occurred at Egu-Agbo Ifitte Mmaku end last Friday after a heavy rainfall. The rehabilitation project was awarded by the Federal Government last year as a constituency project of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, and work had progressed steadily before the unfortunate disaster which has rendered the road impassable. A farmer at Mmaku, Mrs. Nwamaka Ekwe, told reporters who visited the area yesterday that the incident was like an earthquake, lamenting that economic activities in the area had been paralyzed by the disaster. She said: “We have not experienced this type of disaster in this area before. The thing is just like an earthquake and it is very risky for anyone to attempt passing there. We have not been going to market because the road has been cut into two.”

The middle-aged woman urged government to urgently intervene by repairing the damaged portion of the road, expressing fears that the situation could worsen with more rainfall. Also reacting, Mr. Sunday Chukwuobasi, a commercial motorcycle rider from Mmaku, said: “We are not happy about what happened to our road. For long, the people in government have been promising to construct a new road for us but nothing has happened all these years until the recent intervention by the deputy senate president. “The government should urgently come to our aid and alleviate our suffering. Since the day this thing happened nobody could pass through here. Movement has been hampered and the rural women are suffering because they cannot go to the market. Last Oye market, which was a day after this happened, so many people cried at the market because there was no way to transport their goods to the market.” Mr. Ferdinand Ebo, a driver from Achi, Oji-River Local Government Area said: “This road is not good and the contractors working on it started from the Oji-River end and have not done much especially in this area. “With what has happened we have no alternative route now going to Achi from Awgu. What happens is that when we get here I drop my passengers and they look for a way to cross because this is now the end of the road.”